Great Britain’s women have never played Chile at a major tournament with their opponents currently ranked 18th in the world.

Malaysia’s men – ranked 11th in the world – are more familiar to the British men. The likes of Adam Dixon, David Ames and Phil Roper all recently featured for England in a 3-3 draw against Malaysia at August’s Four Nations Tournament, whilst Alan Forsyth scored for Scotland in a 2-1 defeat to The Tigers at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Upon the draw being made, men’s Head Coach Danny Kerry commented: “Malaysia are a good side with some great individuals and a number of threats, but having played them recently gives you that understanding of what that threat is.

“They have some good corner routines and some very fast players who are individually skilful. They also have some very large aerial passes, play well on the counter-attack and, with a very experienced coach in Roelant Oltmans, will be very well prepared. We will respect them and prepare accordingly.

“Playing at Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre and having a home crowd is something I personally enjoy and feel the athletes enjoy having the support behind us too. It’s a great atmosphere there and I think it will be a cracking couple of days that myself and the athletes will really look forward to.”

Both the men’s and women’s teams need to qualify separately through the two-legged matches; if one gender qualifies it does not mean the other progresses alongside them. Though Great Britain’s women are the reigning Olympic champions, they do not qualify automatically for the Tokyo Games.

Tickets are set to go on general sale for the Olympic Qualifiers on Monday 16 September.

Courtesy of GB Hockey

The men compete in Colomiers, France and the women in Kazan, Russia with both tournaments streamed live on the Rugby Europe website.

Abbie Brown and Tom Mitchell each captain unchanged England squads from the last Rugby Europe Sevens Grand Prix rounds. The women’s side finish fifth in Marcoussis while the men picked up a bronze medal in Moscow. Both were pre-qualifying tournaments for this weekend’s Olympic qualification events.

Day one of the competitions see England face Germany, Sweden and Russia in Pool B of the women’s competition at the Central Stadium in Kazan. While the men’s squad face Lithuania, Georgia and Germany in Pool C at the Stade Michel Bendichou in Colomiers.

Looking ahead to the weekend, Amor said: “With a number of players returning from injury, the competition in Moscow a couple of weeks ago was exactly what we needed and it is great that we can select the same squad for this weekend, this gives us for the first time this season consistency and momentum.

“Our aim is to secure Olympic qualification by winning the tournament and we are both excited and confident about the opportunity this weekend and looking forward to taking our 1st steps on the ladder on Saturday.”

Speaking about the women’s event, Bailey added: “It has been a good couple of weeks for us as a squad since Marcoussis and we’ve been preparing well for this Olympic qualification tournament. We’ve had time to review what went well in France and also to look at where we can make some improvements as we head out to Kazan.

“We know it will be extremely competitive again this weekend but we’ve been able to keep consistency with the squad selection which gives us good momentum. There are lots of high-quality opposition, but we travel to Russia in a strong place and with confidence.”

The winners of these two tournaments will qualify directly for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. England is the nominated nation to qualify on behalf of Great Britain. The teams ranked second and third will be put through to participate in the world repechage tournament organised by World Rugby.

England squads for the Rugby Europe Men’s and Women’s Sevens Olympic Qualifier Tournaments:

Women’s
Holly Aitchison
Claire Allan
Abbie Brown ©
Heather Fisher
Deborah Fleming
Megan Jones
Ellie Kildunne
Alex Matthews
Celia Quansah
Helena Rowland
Emma Uren
Amy Wilson Hardy

Men’s
Jamie Barden
Phil Burgess
Richard de Carpentier
Will Edwards
Mike Ellery
Harry Glover
Ben Harris
Charlton Kerr
Ollie Lindsay-Hague
Tom Mitchell ©
Will Muir
Dan Norton

Women – Pool B, streamed live on Rugby Europe website
England v Germany KO 10:28 BST
England v Sweden KO 13:13 BST
England v Russia KO 16:20 BST

Men – Pool C, streamed live on Rugby Europe website
England v Lithuania KO 11:00 BST
England v Georgia KO 13:45 BST
England v Germany KO 16:52 BST

Bath will be the focus in August when Britain battles the rest of Europe for medals, titles and Tokyo Olympic qualifying places in the sport of Modern Pentathlon.

Organisers of the event – Gladiators Return – are looking for local people to feel part of it as “Gladiator Makers” when the European Championships take place from 6-11 August 2019.

This is the biggest Olympic qualifier in the sport which features the excitement of horse-riding, fencing and laser-shooting as well as the more traditional but still crucial disciplines of running and swimming.

Everything will take place at the University of Bath’s £multi-million sports venue with thousands of spectators expected for the televised event.  There are individual competitions as well as men’s, women’s and mixed relays.

Sara Heath, CEO of the sport’s national governing body which is based in Bath, said: “We are shouting out to local people first so that they are given the opportunity of signing up to join our Gladiator Makers team and savour the excitement of volunteering just like the Games-makers of London 2012. Our volunteers will not only support the GB athletes, but also those we are hosting from around Europe. It’s a great opportunity to experience being part of a big event, seeing behind the scenes and being up close to the action”.

Pentathlon GB is seeking up to 100 volunteers in diverse roles including medal ceremony attendants, helping with the media on site, supporting overseas teams and helping on the field of play.

Anyone interested in volunteering for the build-up and/or at the event itself can visit the event website pentathlongb.org/euros2019 to find out more and click on the “Get Involved” button.

Local people will have until 31^st March to take up the chance to be involved before the search goes nationwide next month.

Jamie Cooke, the current men’s World Champion, summed up just how important this event will be to the GB athletes when he said: “The Europeans are one of the first and biggest chances of qualifying for Tokyo so the competition will be incredibly fierce but we are all looking forward to the challenge. What makes it even more special is having the Europeans in our home training city of Bath”.

For further information about the European Championships please contact: Caroline   press@matchtight.co.uk

For further information about the British Team for the event please contact:  Michael Powell, Pentathlon GB media officer: media@pentathlongb.org

Courtesy of Pentathlon GB